Tagged: Mark Buehrle

Who was that huge guy with the bat that hit a home run in the eighth inning? He had Adam Dunn’s jersey on…

I’m gonna need to see eight more one-for-three or two-for-four games before Dunn earns back my trust. I think that’s a pretty reasonable number, and definitely achievable with one hundred one games left to play in the season. (Can you believe that? Already. Man.)

Mark Buehrle keeps turning in good outing after good outing and it’s making me very happy. Another seven solid innings out of the left-hander tonight as he improved his season record to six wins against four losses. I know we beat up on a team that came into the game having lost nine in a row, but a win is a win, right?

The offense was huge tonight. Dunn had a home run, Konerko had another homer (how many games in a row is that now?), Pierre, Vizquel, Ramirez, and Quentin all drove in runs as well. Everyone contributed in this game and that more than anything will help us win ballgames. It’s nice for one player to have a huge game that we can ride for nine innings (see: Carlos Quentin), but when the guys work as a team we’ll have a higher chance at a win. I know I probably sounded like the John Madden of amateur baseball analysts right there but I like to stress the importance of teamwork.

Didn’t I just say yesterday that this team would be a lot better if Dunn was the Dunn we thought we were getting when we signed him? The next game we get a 9-4 win. Keep it up, big guy. And you too, Rios! I see that two-for-five in the box score, don’t try to hide from me.

Jesse Crain and Will Ohman both appeared in tonight’s game. Crain pitched pretty well and despite allowing one run so did Ohman. Two points for Crain and, even though I don’t usually give out points to pitchers who surrender a run – it was a good game tonight so I’m feeling generous – a point for Ohman as well.

Young Graham Godfrey will be making his MLB debut for the A’s tomorrow against Edwin Jackson (4-5, 4.50). Let’s give him a debut he’ll never forget. In the bad way, though.

The Sox are slowly but surely climbing their way up the standings in the AL Central. The Indians have been cooling off lately (although they beat the Jays 13-9 today) and the Sox are heating up. Dying first place team + red-hot bottom feeders = recipe for Soxcess. (I’ll stop there, I promise.)

Gavin Floyd started the game a little shakily today, giving up three runs in the bottom of the second inning. He settled in after that as he went on to pitch six and two thirds innings, striking out one and walking one. His record in Boston remains perfect as he picked up his fifth career win at Fenway Park. My friend Keleigh has said (several times this year) that Gavin needs to stop and breathe every once in a while. He seems to get in a hurry on the mound and we’ve seen that his stuff is good enough for him to be a dominating starting pitcher. Apparently he stopped to breathe today.

If the Sox go on to bigger and better things this season we’re gonna have to have a Brent Lillibridge day. I doubt we’d be where we are if it weren’t for this scrappy little guy. The Bridge (this is probably the most unoriginal nickname I’ve ever given) drove in two runs today, one on an RBI double off of the Big Green Monster in the fourth inning and a solo homer over the said Green Monster in the sixth. Paul Konerko had arguably his best game of the season as he went three-for-four with three runs batted in. He had a huge two-run home run off of Jonathan Papelbon (who was having a pretty good season) in the ninth inning to ensure our 7-4 victory. Oh, and Adam Dunn was disappointing again. No hits in four at-bats, two strikeouts. Come on, man… $56 million.

This is embarrassing.

Chris Sale is now becoming one of the more reliable arms in the bullpen. Whatever problems he was having earlier in the year he’s fixed them now. Perhaps he can share his magical ways with Adam Dunn? Anyway, Gavin Floyd left the game with two outs in the seventh so Sale came in to finish off that frame, then he stuck around a little bit for the eighth inning. Three Sweep Points for Sale. Sergio Santos came on in the ninth inning to nail down the save – his tenth of the year – and he’ll earn three Sweep Points as well.

I’m still really excited that we managed to sweep the Boston Red Sox. Of all teams! This was pretty much the equivalent of when I played for the Yankees about four years ago and our team beat the only undefeated team in the league. It was awesome. We weren’t terrible, we finished with a 12-3 record, but that game definitely gave us a confidence boost. Hopefully this sweep will have the same effect on the Boys in Black.

Much deserved off-day tomorrow before we come home to play the Detroit Tigers on Friday. Mark Buehrle (4-4, 3.91) will be laughably opposed by Andrew Oliver (0-0, 4.50).

Go Sox!!

And whoever found my blog by searching for “can you pitch one third of an inning and get a save,” you’re awesome.

One positive to take from tonight: Adam Dunn was walked in all four of his plate appearances. While that doesn’t seem like much it is a HUUUUGE adjustment. Watching the Gameday tonight I saw that he wasn’t swinging as much as he usually does and that shows me that he’s trying really hard to turn his season around. Being dropped down to the seven spot in the lineup will probably take some pressure of as well. The look on his face over the past week has been that of a player who is absolutely lost at home plate. I’m proud of the Donkey for being more patient tonight.

There’s a song that the little kids at my church sing that goes like this: “Have patience, have patience, don’t be in such a hurry. When you get impatient, you only start to worry.” I think Adam needs to learn this song and keep singing it to himself.

Buehrle pitched very well tonight but, much like Gavin Floyd on Sunday, he just couldn’t get any run support. Seven innings, three earned runs, three strikeouts, and two walks. A typical Mark Buehrle outing.

Alexei Ramirez and Carlos Quentin had one RBI each, Ramirez brought home Juan Pierre on a sacrifice fly in the third inning and Quentin drove in Adam Dunn on a walk in the fifth inning.

What made all of our hearts skip, though, was what happened in the third inning. Alex Rios’ relay throw to second base hopped up and hit Gordon Beckham square in the eye and Beckham went down immediately. His eye was swelling up after he left the field and X-rays have been done to check for fractures. Apparently the brunt of the ball hit the bone just below the eye and no real damage was done to the eyeball itself. Hopefully Beck is alright and will be able to come back soon. I’ll be praying for a speedy recovery to this scary accident.

Tony Pena pitched an inning of relief and allowed one run so I’m not really sure what to do about it. The Sox were down anyway when he came in to the game… so should I give him one point? None? Let me know what you think.

Edwin Jackson (4-5, 4.26) will go for the Sox tomorrow and Carlos Villanueva (2-0, 1.53) will deal for the Blue Jays.

Yet another spectacular outing from Mr. Philip Gregory Humber. I talked about consistency in yesterday’s post and I’ll bring it up again. Humber has been the most consistent starter on the staff this season and I had no idea we acquired him until he was on the mound out of the bullpen. Now he’s showing off a sparkling ERA of 2.85. How awesome has this guy been, huh? I’d give him some honorary bullpen points but that would be too cheesy. This blog draws the line at cheese.

The offense wasn’t much tonight but what we got was enough. Juan Pierre drove in A.J. Pierzynski in the fifth inning on a single that went through the gap between first and second. Pierre again reached base in the top of the tenth on a grounder to first baseman Juan Rivera. Pierre was chugging hard down the line and beat out Jays pitcher Mark Rzcpsuiueofhshfkhski… I think that’s how you spell that… anyway, two runs scored on that play. Adam Dunn struck out four times. *sigh*

Jesse Crain came through with another huge outing. He came on to pitch to Jose Bautista in the eighth inning, ending up walking him, then got Arencibia to ground out to Alexei Ramirez. The Mohawked Monstrosity gets three points for Situational Clutchness. Sergio Santos earns his eighth save of the year and collects two points in doing so. Crain takes over the top spot in the standings.

What a fantastic game. I jumped off my chair in the ninth inning when we scored the two runs. My dad looked at me and said, “Did they win?” and I said, “No, we’re in Toronto.” and he said, “…but did they win?” and I said, “No, but we scored two runs.” to which he said, “And you reacted like that?”

We had it and then Sergio Santos, of all people, gave it up. His first runs allowed all season – including Spring Training. We tried to come back but it didn’t really work as Kenley Jansen, Matt Guerrier, Scott Elbert, and Mike MacDougal held us to one run over three innings. It’s really a shame because Humber pitched very well, again, in his seven innings of work. He only allowed to runs to this Dodger offense that has the potential to walk all over you. Humber just can’t catch a break. I’m sure his head dropped when the ball jumped off of Russell Mitchell’s bat in the ninth inning.

Gordon Beckham had a two-run home run and Alex Rios scored on a Ramon Castro double in the second inning. Adam Dunn drove in our fourth run on a sacrifice ground out in the bottom of the tenth and that was it.

Jesse Crain gets three points for, at that point in the game, an extremely clutch two thirds of an inning of work. He came on with the bases loaded and struck out Juan Castro and then got James Loney to hit a tapper in front of Alexei Ramirez which the short stop handled nicely. Three points for Crain, no points for anyone else. (“Anyone else” referring to Matt Thornton and Sergio Santos.)

I’ll be at the game tomorrow and I’m bringing my video camera to document it for my blog. I’ll take pictures as well so tomorrow’s game recap well be very media-oriented. And an update on that thing that I teased the other day, it will be here by Tuesday. And then I can share it with you. Cuz it’s awesome.

Mark Buehrle (3-3, 4.07) vs. Jon Garland (1-3, 3.55) tomorrow. Pretty cool to see Garland back in Chicago, he was always one of my favorite pitchers. Him and Neal Cotts.

That’s two in a row! Such a fantastic feeling to be blogging after back-to-back wins. The last time I was able to do this was at the beginning of the Yankees series.

The scoring started in the fourth inning when Ramon Castro hit a single to left field which scored Paul Konerko. Left fielder Milton Badley made a horrible throw to home plate which Miguel Olivo couldn’t get a handle on, allowing Alex Rios to score on a not-so-close play at the plate. The game was tied at two until the tenth inning when the Sox pushed three runs across the plate against Brandon League. Brent Morel started off the tenth inning with a single then was driven in on an Alexei Ramirez double. Adam Dunn drove in Alexei Ramirez on a double of his own, then moved to third on a Paul Konerko single, and then scored on an Alex Rios single into center field. Konerko was a perfect five-for-five.

Dunn is starting to look like a ballplayer again lately. Catherine’s shirt that says “This Girlie Loves Buehrle” inspired me to come up with a t-shirt idea of my own, which I shared with my family at lunch today: “Adam Dunn’s Batting Average + Time = Comedy.” Eventually we’ll all be laughing about his slow start and frankly I think that shirt would fly off the shelves. I’ll get my sister to work on it right away. I also thought of custom making a Twins jersey with number seven on it that says “DORK” instead of “MAUER.” That one would probably be a little more expensive…

Mark Buehrle pitched eight innings of two-run ball for the third straight quality start from White Sox starting pitching. Buehrle struck out three batters and surrendered nine hits to the Mariners offense but didn’t earn a win as the game was tied when he came out of the game. Sergio Santos pitched two innings of shutout relief, matching Buehrle with three strikeouts, earning him two points.

Bullpen Points Leaderboard

1. Sergio Santos – 21 points

1. Jesse Crain – 19 points

3. Will Ohman – 12 points

4. Chris Sale – 11 points

5. Tony Pena– 8 points

5. Matt Thornton – 8 points

7. Jeff Gray –7 points

The Sox will move down the West coast tomorrow to take on the Angels who are currently in first place in their division with a record of 20-15. Edwin Jackson (2-4, 4.98) vs. Ervin Santana (1-3, 4.43) tomorrow night at 9:10. If you haven’t heard by now, Jake Peavy is scheduled to make his first start of the year on Wednesday. I definitely do not want to miss that game as I think Peavy will be better than people expect him to be.

Man! Dude! That’s two in a row! I feel like an absolute loser for getting this worked up over a little two game winning streak (even the Pirates get one of those every now and then – imagine how they must feel) but it’s been too long since we’ve won two in a row.

The offense is still struggling a bit and you can really see it on the faces of most of the players. Everyone looks really lost, like they’re over-analyzing what could be the simplest problem in their swing. Except for the occasional Gift Pitch we just can’t get any good wood on the ball and that’s why we aren’t scoring any runs. Konerko skied that homer into the left field seats, it was a real thing of beauty and exactly what we needed.

How about Brent Lillibridge with some fantastic defense in right field? That guy is coming in for Quentin in the later innings (after Quentin’s “last” at bat of the game or to pinch run for someone and replace CQ in the outfield) and I’m really digging how talented he is. He’s our own little Sam Fuld. The plays he’s making are really good plays so I feel like I should give him a grown-up nickname like… The Bridge… or something. What do you think? We need a nickname for this guy.

As good as his two plays were, though, I really feel that Hawk overreacted a little bit on the first one. It didn’t really deserve a “LOOK AT THE PLAY BY *PLAYER’S NAME* MERCY!” as much as Dewayne Wise deserved his, but I guess, in the moment, Hawk couldn’t come up with anything better to say. Understandable. They were still HUGE plays that undoubtedly saved the game for us. Well done, sir.

The Pitcher of Mystery had a fantastic outing, going eight innings, striking out ten and allowing two runs on four hits. Then Thornton and Santos out of the bullpen – they’ll both get two points. (Thornton got a hold and Santos logged his second consecutive save.)

Bullpen Points Leaderboard

1. Sergio Santos – 15 points

2. Will Ohman – 9 points

3. Jesse Crain – 8 points

3. Chris Sale – 8 points

4. Will Ohman – 7 points

5. Tony Pena – 5 points

6. Jeff Gray – 4 points

7. Matt Thornton – 3 points

15 points for Santos. Wherever you are, bro, high five to you.

Next game will be tomorrow at 6:05 again, Mark Buehrle (1-2, 5.40) vs. Little Debbie Cakes Colon (1-1, 3.50). Thank goodness we didn’t have to face Cap’n Crunch Sabathia during this trip.